The announcement of the Apple Vision Pro at its most recent event, aside from surprising everyone with glasses that combine augmented reality and virtual reality—the misnamed " mixed reality "—made it clear that the sector is interesting enough for Apple to want to enter it and set trends. One thing that's often emphasized about Apple is that it knows when to enter certain technological sectors. This would mean that with the Vision Pro, Apple hopes that by then Virtual and Augmented Reality will have developed sufficiently, but in preparation for its launch, it has been forced to drastically cut production forecasts.
This is attributed to the complexity of the headphone design, as well as production difficulties. Production targets have reportedly been reduced, while plans for a more affordable version of the device have been postponed.
The Apple Vision Pro do not start off on the right foot and that they are still in their first production
Apple has already indicated that the $3.500 Vision Pro won't be released until " early next year ." Analysts have interpreted the discrepancy between that vague date and the announcement on June 5th as stemming more from supply chain issues than from a desire to give developers time to create applications for the Vision Pro. It wouldn't be difficult to reimagine games like Beat Saber for the Vision Pro compared to the Meta Quest.
Two people close to Apple and Luxshare, the Chinese contract manufacturer that will initially assemble the Vision Pro, said it was preparing to produce fewer than 400.000 units in 2024. Other sources said Luxshare was currently Apple's sole assembler of the device. Two exclusive China-based suppliers of certain components for the Vision Pro said Apple was only ordering enough for between 130.000 and 150.000 units in the first year.
Both projections would imply a significant production cut compared to a previous internal sales target of one million units in the first 12 months . The low-volume forecasts reflect a lack of confidence on Apple's part in scaling up production, following years of missed device launch deadlines.
One of the main obstacles is the manufacture of the device screens. They are two microOLED screens and an outward-facing curved lenticular lens. Apple would have been unhappy with the productivity of the vendors, especially with the performance of micro-OLEDs that are free of defects, and that would be the most expensive component.
Source: ArsTechnica